The debate over the creation of a Indigenous advisory body has burst into a cacophony of noise, misinformation, confusion and abuse. We've been here before, writes Bridget Brennan.
Victoria's First People's Assembly is one of the first of its kind in Australia. It works as an elected body made up of Aboriginal people from multiple Indigenous nations, balancing different views for a common goal: to give Indigenous kids a better future. By the end of this year, the assembly wants to begin Australian-first Treaty negotiations with the state.Victoria's "voice" has been meeting for four years. Its task is enormous and momentous.
It's not clear who is behind the misinformation, but the assembly says it points to a scare campaign over treaties, designed to "poison the goodwill". Dylan Wotjobaluk man and assembly member Dylan Clarke, whose name was deceptively used to spread the message, said the letter was designed depict Aboriginal people "as something to be afraid of".Fear of the "unknown" has a long history in the debate over Indigenous rights - the not-so-subtle suggestion being that Aboriginal people are getting special treatment at the cost of other Australians.
One of the saddest elements of the debate over the Voice has been the resurgence of conspiracy theories First Nations communities dealt with 30 years ago. The Aborigines taking your backyard and demanding "sweeping powers"? None of that has happened in the decades since native title legislation but some days in the midst of this debate it feels like 1993, not 2023.
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